. >> first of all, it's driven by harry reid. he refused to bring up a budget, to bring up a single appropriations bill. >> but you just mentioned speaker boehner. >> well, i was going to get to that. he's driven this process, and about the only thing the republicans could have done would be to protest it, and fight harder about it. and we have, but i don't think effectively enough. and we've now, at the end, fallen into this trap, i would suggest on of just having secret negotiations. i really wish we could have avoided it. but this was the strategy of the democratic leadership in the senate, and they carried it out for almost three years -- over two years now. >> all right, you said in your op-ed today, and i want to quote you directly. you said, in part, washington has become possessed by the idea that a small group of negotiators, meeting in secret, can solve the deep, painful, and systemic problems plaguing this country with a single grand bargain, produced at the 59th minute of the 11th hour. this is a siren song. i suppose